Giant Banner Hang Proclaims "Boise Cascade: An American Disgrace"

Press Release from RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK

For Immediate Release: March 29, 2001
Contacts: Michael Brune, 415/595-7246 (on site); Shannon Wright, 415/398-4404

GIANT BANNER UNFURLED IN DOWNTOWN BOISE, IDAHO PROCLAIMS
“BOISE CASCADE: AN AMERICAN DISGRACE”

Pressure Builds on Renegade Logging Giant as Court Hearings Approach for U.S. Roadless Initiative

Boise, ID - On the eve of controversial hearings for legal challenges to the U.S. Roadless Policy, two forest activists rappelled from the Jefferson Building at 350 N. 9th Street in Boise, Idaho this morning to deliver a forceful message to America’s old growth logging giant. Directly in front of Boise Cascade’s headquarters, the massive 60’ x 30’ banner read, “Boise Cascade: An American Disgrace”. Boise Cascade is the lead plaintiff in a suit designed to prevent some of the country’s largest remaining wilderness areas from being protected.

“Shame on Boise Cascade” said Michael Brune, Campaigns Director for Rainforest Action Network (RAN). “Ninety five percent of our country’s old growth forests have already been destroyed, yet Boise Cascade continues to have its hand out, demanding access to the few pockets of wilderness that remain. It’s disgraceful that the company still hasn’t learned from the mistakes of its past.”

The U.S. Roadless Policy is the most significant land conservation measure of the past 100 years, and will protect 58.5 million wilderness acres from commercial logging and road building. Called the most popular federal policymaking decision in U.S. history, the roadless policy generated 1.6 million letters of support from citizens across the country, five times more than any other policy announcement.

RAN launched a markets campaign last Friday targeting the top 500 customers of Boise Cascade, urging each company to discontinue business relations with the company. Boise Cascade’s practices run counter to the purchasing policies of many of its top customers such as Home Depot, Kinko’s, Lowe’s and others. More than four hundred companies-including an estimated twenty-five percent of the U.S. lumber market-have pledged to help protect the world’s last remaining old growth forests by eliminating the purchase and use of wood and paper from these regions.

“Just as our society has moved beyond such outdated practices as slaughtering elephants for ivory, we now seem to be on the verge of ending old growth logging as we know it,” declared Jennifer Krill, one of the climbers from today’s demonstration. “It’s time for industry dinosaurs like Boise Cascade to meet these new standards in the marketplace and get out of old growth forests once and for all.”

Boise Cascade acts as a primary distributor of wood products from old growth forests globally. The company sells wood that has been ripped from endangered forests in the Amazon Basin, tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia, temperate rainforests in British Columbia and Chile, among other areas. According to the World Resources Institute, more than three-quarters of the world's old growth forests have already been logged and degraded, much within the past three decades. In the United States, less than five percent of our original forests remain. ***